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Bush looks for new Supreme Court nominee
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-29 10:23
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, after the stinging failure
to get Harriet Miers on the U.S. Supreme Court due to a conservative rebellion,
looked for a new nominee on Friday and aides expected him to announce his choice
in a matter of days.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan ruled out an
announcement while Bush was at his Camp David retreat. He was to return on
Sunday afternoon. Officials said he was working from a short list of candidates
and had not yet made a final decision.
As always, Bush's deliberations were being conducted with utmost secrecy on a
choice that could shift the balance of power on the nine-member court.
Bush's pick for the lifetime appointment must be confirmed by a majority of
the 100-member Senate, which is controlled by the president's Republican Party.
Democrats in the minority urged Bush to resist the demands of his
conservative base and pick a mainstream candidate to replace the retiring Sandra
Day O'Connor, a moderate conservative and often pivotal swing vote on the
divided court.
"The extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Miers nomination make it
even more important that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor be replaced by a mainstream
nominee, not by an activist who would bring an ideological agenda to the court,"
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Vermont Sen. Patrick
Leahy (news, bio, voting record), top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, said in a letter to Bush.
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